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Urban Nowhere: Loss of Self in Lydia Davisâ•Ž Stories and Wang Anyiâ Journal of International Women's Studies Volume 18 | Issue 4 Article 4 Aug-2017 Urban Nowhere: Loss of Self in Lydia Davis’ Stories and Wang Anyi’s Brothers Xue Wei Kate Rose Follow this and additional works at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Wei, Xue and Rose, Kate (2017). Urban Nowhere: Loss of Self in Lydia Davis’ Stories and Wang Anyi’s Brothers. Journal of International Women's Studies, 18(4), 38-49. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol18/iss4/4 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2017 Journal of International Women’s Studies. Urban Nowhere: Loss of Self in Lydia Davis’ Stories and Wang Anyi’s Brothers By Xue Wei1 and Kate Rose2 Abstract This paper focuses on how contemporary literary works by women authors in China and the U.S. reverse the individualist West/collectivist China assumption. It mainly compares the works of Lydia Davis and Wang Anyi with regards to urban women’s identities. Under the inspiration of revolutionary ideologies that characterize 20th century China, female characters are striving for meaning in their lives as individuals. In U.S.-American writings, however, the individual is becoming more anonymous and interchangeable, particularly in urban spaces. This article traces possible reasons and implications for this contrast. Keywords: Identity and selfhood, women authors, China, Collectivism, Individualism Introduction Although many political, economic, cultural and ideological differences between China and the US are sharp and clear, there is one questionable popular belief in both countries: the US (and the West in general) is individual-oriented, whereas China is collective.3 Typical Western criticism about China is that there is limited space for the individual, whose own goals are shadowed by the large, absolute national power. We shall focus on how literary works from the 1980s to recent years show a tendency to negate the Self in Western novels, and to affirm the Self in their Chinese counterparts. The loss or negation of the Self appears as a major theme in Western literature beginning in the latter half of the 20th century. Self is understood here in Jungian terms: it is the person in all of his or her integrity, without the masks required by society or others’ expectations. It is where the deepest desires reside for individual realization, as well as the impulse to fulfill them (Jung 1958). The Self is constructed or destroyed in parallel to the evolving social norms governing the 1 Xue Wei recently earned a Master’s degree in English Literature from China University of Mining and Technology. Her main research interests include comparing Chinese and American literatures, and feminist studies. Published articles include: “The Uneven and Ever-Suffering Road: Introduction of Chinese Literature to the Western World,” in China from Where We Stand: Readings in Comparative Sinology, Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2016; and “Lesbianism and Selfhood: An Exploration of a Contemporary Chinese Woman’s Novel,” Rain and Thunder, Fall 2016. 2Kate Rose is a professor at China University of Mining and Technology, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate students of English and conducts research with the International Center for Comparative Sinology. She is also responsible for international academic conferences and publications. This is her third year in China, and she is finally reading books in Chinese. Before this, she earned a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Montpellier, France, on Magical Realism and the quest for freedom in contemporary French and Francophone women’s writings (also topic of her first book, Décoloniser l’imaginaire). Originally American, she lived and taught in France for 13 years. Her other themes include feminist utopia and travel writing. 3 This is in keeping with the Cultural Dimensions Theory developed by Hofstede, which places individualism as one of the five factors that can be used to distinguish and classify cultures. This theory is popular in both China and the West. 38 Journal of International Women’s Studies Vol. 18, No. 4 August 2017 collective. This is clearly seen in US-American women’s literature of the past 60 years. In Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook (1962), the female characters become frustrated and give up their individualist fight against men and society; likewise, several women in Alice Munro’s Runaway do run away, but return to their subjugated, Self-less lives with only additional frustrations. Perhaps the most revealing examples are found in short stories by Lydia Davis: individuals are constantly facing a loss of Self; particularly in urban spaces, where they are troubled by a nameless and placeless situation from which they cannot escape. In contrast, the individual in many contemporary Chinese works shows strong Self-affirmation. Although the political or social background is so overwhelming that no individual can entirely escape it, such a situation may actually stimulate Self-awareness for these characters. Rhetoric of Revolution and Social Control Since the 1980s, in Chinese cinema and literature alike, women authors have created female characters who are torn between individual desires and national obligations, as described by Shuqin Cui: “In films made by women directors, we find evidence of a female consciousness: the exploration of a Self, split between submission to sociopolitical ideology and allegiance to personal desire” (Cui 200). The production of Chinese novels parallels that of films, with many made explicitly to participate in the cause of nation-building. Such films and novels shed light not only on China’s goals, but also on how individuals conjugate new identities in keeping with the revolutionary outlook of their nation. In recent years, some of China’s “fifth generation” national allegories have been well-received internationally: “turning national identity and cultural history into visual images, this small, radical group of newcomers to world cinema initiated a transnational engagement in which Chinese productions for the first time drew serious attention from the West” (Cui 99). Less attention has been given to novels in which women writers also reflect on national identity, cultural history, and China’s rapid changes towards a future largely unknown. In Emerald, Zhang Jie suggests that with an improvement of the socio-political situation (society becoming more stable and material life more comfortable) Chinese people can develop their sense of Self and live meaningful individual lives. Emerald takes place during a transitional period in Chinese socio-political history; this is also the case of Brothers, a novella by Wang Anyi. Both texts reflect the new, post-1980s era of increased opportunity. A brief look at modern Chinese history can shed light on the socio-political situation allegorized in novellas such as Brothers. Before the establishment of a nationwide socialist system in 19494, China had already experienced half a century of capitalist democratic revolution. The main turning point was in 1912, when dynastic China officially gave way to the Republic of China. Revolutionary culture became a part of modern Chinese culture. It was instrumental in ending the Japanese occupation and other foreign threats. Later Mao Zedong, as the country’s leader, put new wind in the revolutionary sails, with a political philosophy based on the proletariat revolting against the bourgeoisie. The legacy of a century of revolutions can be seen all over China, on monuments, in speeches, and not least of all in TV shows, movies, and historical novels. Wearing their red scarves in remembrance of the communist blood that was spilled, students go to libraries, memorial halls or statues to learn revolutionary history and philosophy, and to show their respects to the late revolutionaries. Such a revolutionary culture may require the loyalty to one ideology, 4 Although in Western countries China is generally referred to as a communist country, the Chinese government and its people consider it a socialist country, although ruled by the Communist Party. See Xi Jinping, On the Governance of China. 39 Journal of International Women’s Studies Vol. 18, No. 4 August 2017 which many Westerners abhor. It can nonetheless be an inspiration and encouragement towards individuality, because revolution implies sticking to one’s own beliefs or ideals against overwhelming odds. Before the May 4th Movement in 1919, there was absolute gender segregation in social life, and women had to stop education after high school because they were banned from universities or colleges.5 But just two months after the Movement, Peking University first broke the prohibition and two years later women could be admitted into most universities with full membership and free social contact with men, much earlier than most Western colleges went co-ed. The US-American journalist Edgar Snow was the first Western reporter to spend time in the “red” (communist) China region in 1936. He reported a strong sense of individuality among the people and particularly the communist revolutionaries. The pessimistic satisfaction toward this world which was predominant in other parts of China was rare here, as revolutionary culture liberated people from low self-esteem and humility stemming from poverty and traditional Chinese culture: “I had never before seen so much personal dignity in any Chinese youngsters. [They are] cheerful, gay, energetic and loyal—the living spirit of an astonishing crusade of youth” (Snow 118). Likewise, many literary works by and about women showed radical, rebellious, and spirited individual traits. For example, the 1928 novel 莎菲女士日记/Miss Sophia’s Diary by Ding Ling (1904-1986) focuses on a typical rebellious woman who was a strong individualist and feminist in ideology, and an idealist toward love.
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